JBL Synthesis Everest Home Theater Speakers

Expert Review

Project Everest was initiated in an attempt to produce nothing short of the worlds finest home theater system, and many would say that JBL has succeeded. The most recent iteration of the Everest speakers, the DD67000, reach even deeper levels of ultimate bass performance, and continue to offer the exciting, effortless, and peerlessly coherent sound that Project Everest has become famous for in the world of high-end home theater.

The full $260,000 package includes eight SK2-3300 surround speakers, four S1S-EX subwoofers, and three DD67000 loudspeakers. Each of the DD67000 Project Everest speakers integrate two 1501AL-2 cast aluminum woofers, which deliver neutral bass down to 32 hz, an incredible feat considering that most standard subwoofers cant even reproduce this frequency, to say nothing of the accuracy of even most high end woofers at this depth. The S1S-EX woofers respond flat down to 30hz, and the system together has been rumored to simulate frequencies as low as 5hz, easily capable of simulating earthquake-like physical reverberations at high volumes. There is a bit of overemphasis in the 100-200hz range, which helps give Project Everest its notoriously explosive, dynamic sound, but for those who dont want quite so much bass, proper positioning can mitigate some of the extra LF; keep in mind that these speakers were designed for spaces between 30,000-100,000 ft3, and using them in a smaller space could easily damage your ears, on top of simply not sounding as they should.

The Everest produces positively soaring high frequencies, remaining totally free of distortion that would be audible to the human ear, even at the limit of our hearing, 20,000hz, the highest of high frequencies. This contributes to Project Everests absolutely stunning realism, revealing the most minute of details in the finest recordings of any kind and remaining absolutely transparent and grain-free no matter what volume they are pushed too.

Overall, Project Everest gives what is perhaps the closest home theater experience to really being there: they are known by audiophiles to have, more than any other high-end system, that certain je ne se quoi that just makes you feel like you are right there with the sound, whether it be clashing swords at Helms Deep in The Lord of the Rings, or right there in the front row at that live Van Halen performance. There is quite simply no peer for the Project Everest in terms of achieving the true-to-life realism that so many home audio enthusiasts crave, and for that reason, it receives my highest recommendation as the ultimate home theater speaker system.Rating: 5/5